The111

Ha, two people replied at the same time in the same way, and I was gonna say the exact same thing (quote with emphasis on FLYING). And I haven't even flown one yet! Just a few more weeks... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ah, so at half brakes you have the mobility to change the length of your final leg in *either* direction, i.e. shorten or lengthen. Makes sense, thanks.

I would be very interested in these videos as well. When they talk about the record swoop being 418' (I think), how are they defining it? Obviously it must be a much tighter requirement than a 5' gate if you're breaking 500' by this standard. The "record" to my knowledge was done 10mph downwind though... I guess there are no rules about wind in distance considerations. But 30mph downwind sounds crazy. Assuming you need to slow down to 10mph groundspeed to run it out, that would mean you flew your canopy from full airspeed, down to zero, and then all the way down to a negative airspeed of 20mph. Is this possible? Or did you land with 30mph groundspeed? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm trying to learn how to be more accurate on my landings, it's always been my weakest point. The past few weekends I've been within a 20m circle or so which is better than I've done in the past, but I want to learn how to land ON A DIME. Or at least in the 4m circle I need to do 25 times for my C license, and at this rate I won't have that level of accuracy at 200 jumps. I've taken Scott Miller's courses, and I understand the importance of flying a pattern, and that is what has helped me get down to the 20m circle I'm in now. However, and I could be wrong here, I don't think I will ever get in a 4m circle by flying the pattern alone, consistently at least. I start my pattern at 1000ft and that means if I misjudge my altitude by even 30ft and assume a 2:1 glide ratio on final approach, that's 60ft away from my target I will land. Obviously glide ratio varies with wind, but my point is that a 50ft error at 1000ft will cause considerable miss of the target. I think that no matter how good someone is at eyeballing, it's damn near impossible to tell the difference between 950ft and 1000ft (could be wrong again), a "dial" type altimeter is no more accurate, and I am considering buying a Neptune but feel it should not be the deciding factor in me landing where I want to. So, obviously no matter how good your pattern is, there are going to have to be some small corrections on final. Which brings me to the real point of this post. On a windy day, I can get damn close to my target since I just setup for a small overshoot and use brakes to bring my landing point back slightly. On my Spectre it doesn't take much wind to allow this to work. However, on a no wind day, I obviously can't use this trick, and up until now I thought I was confined to landing wherever my pattern puts me (this is what I did yesterday and landed at least 10m away every time). But today I had an idea which makes sense to me, I'm wondering if it's commonly used. On a no wind day, would it make sense to set up for a small undershoot, and then use brakes a bit on final to extend that leg and hit the target more accurately? Any and all advice is appreciated... I realize with

Asking how dangerous a successful stunt was requires you to theorize about the other possible outcomes and the factors involved in the success of the stunt. If you only analyze "what's being done", then every successful stunt is safe, and every failed one is dangerous. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh, I'm aware of that, I've noticed a lot of the skydiving world (not just swoopers) is biased toward Javs because of their super-aggressive advertising, marketing, and sponsoring campain. I prefer Vector though, but I am curious how much impact the harness and its fit has on swooping. His reasoning had to do with the fit and design of the harness... obviously any brand of harness can be sized to fit well, and I don't know the ins and outs of each harness, but there is some weight to his statement I think, that the design of the harness will have something to do with how you shifting your body transmits forces to the lines/canopy. The point of my post was not to focus on the one person I was talking to or the specific Jav comment, I'm just curious how many experienced swoopers think that harness selection is an important part of their swooping gear selection. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Damn, I just bought JumpTrack but I'm getting interested in the Neptune too. I'm guessing you can install an IR port on a normal PC? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I watched the swoop comp at DeLand this weekend and someone I was having a conversation with mentioned how important harness construction is for the top-level competitors to get the most out of their swoops. I realize that opinions are just that, but he said that without a doubt the Odyssey was the preferred H/C of all pro swoopers because it allows for the most control for the duration of the approach and surf. Knowing SHIT about swooping myself but wanting to get into it (slowly) in the future, I'm curious if any experienced swoopers would disagree with this? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

EDIT: and BY limit... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Actually, I am. And my limit, I mean flattest glide angle achievable. As it's been pointed out, he flattened his glide angle near the end of his flight to distance himself from the slope. Clearly, the slope was steeper than his flattest glide, a good thing. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It appears to me that this is partly due to the slope getting steeper, but that could be an optical illusion, it's hard to tell from the video. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Mmm... mogul pie. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You may think my technical analysis is out of place, but consider this. He is flying damn near parallel to the slope. I'm not suggesting he knew the exact angle of his flight or anything like that, but if that slope just happened to be exactly parallel to his max glide angle, he's pretty damn lucky. I don't know the man at all, and I have no proof from the video that he could glide any flatter, but I'd imagine going into the stunt that he made sure the slope was at least a bit steeper than his flattest glide. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

There is another topic about Loic's slope swoop that I won't hijack... But the other day I showed the video to a friend at work. He loved it, but today he told me that he showed it to several of his friends and none of them believed it was real, they thought there were special effects involved. I thought that was funny. Anyone else ever experience anything like this? I've had many strange reactions when showing videos to whuffos, but never this one. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Please elaborate... there are two directions of speed involved here, and by max I don't know if you mean high speed or low speed, since a wingsuit pilot who is able to fly very slow could say he is maxing out his suit. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I am not at all trying to say that Loic's stunt was nothing short of mindblowing, but I do not think it was the "limit". IMO, the fact that he had to drop down in altitude to get close to the slope illustrates that he was not at his absolute minimum fall rate. It would be next to impossible to swoop a slope at your minimum fall rate, as your time from plane exit to flull glide would have to be right on the money to locate you just above the slope. I am pretty damn sure he left himself margin for error, and just as he dropped down into his slot he could have lifted up out of it by flattening his glide. Again, I am NOT downplaying this stunt at all, it is BADASS and took a lot of skill. But I doubt it was his limit. Flying a wingsuit over a slope which is parallel to your flattest glide angle would be EXTREMELY difficult (getting to the slot) and very foolish IMO. I think Loic's stunt was risky but not foolish. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Seriously though, I think I'm going to DeLand to watch the swoop contest. Cheap jumps are enticing too though. It's a dilemma. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That's awesome man, I'm happy for you. Now I want the thief's head on a pike. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Wow, this makes me happy but I hope that he can still get it back, if that bit about the police report is true and he didn't file one (I don't know if he did)... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'll admit I've never dealt with a pawn shop before so I don't know... but are you implying that people regularly sell something to a pawn shop and buy it back themselves? For temporary cash or something? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Worth noting - the seller is apparently a pawn shop. If that's the case, and the item is stolen, it's unlikely they stole it themselves, or have access to the person who sold it to them. I wonder what the course of action is in cases like this? For example, I find my stolen TV for sale in a pawn shop. I can't just take it back, but I'm not paying for it either. I'm wondering if the law intervenes somehow, but even if that is the case, I doubt it's the same story when the item is a BASE rig. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Check the guy's other auctions, there is a skydiving rig too, made by "PARAFUN" (?) Both of these auctions scream stolen. This is the second thing today that has pissed me off. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

This story makes me more angry than I've been in a long time. If he doesn't get legal help, I wonder if we could get people on here to start a fund for him. I usually hate charity, donations, etc, but I would easily donate $20 at the very least to this guy after reading this story. That might sounds sting, but there are a LOT of people on these forums and if they all sent $20 (which is next to nothing) this guy's problems (the monetary ones at least) would be solved. However if I were him I'd sue the fuck out of everyone. It's not just a monetary injustice that's been done to him. It doesn't take 8 days to get the results of a piss test either! I'm wondering wtf was going through the cop's head who thought it justified to arrest someone based on the smell of a car that was obviously a rental, and how they can keep him for 8 days. I dunno, either something is seriously missing from this story or that dumb cop was the KING of dumb cops and deserves to be seriously reprimanded, i.e. have his shit ruined. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

What's the difference between "exit" and "launch" in your description? Grips I take it? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh, right after you left he did one last jump with me... I assumed it would be more of him making me chase him in a sit and follow the leader type stuff... but out of nowhere he goes head down and starts carving around me hella fast. Outside of video, I've only seen someone fly headdown once or twice and that wasn't right in my face. He was less than 10 feet from me the whole time and I was able to turn my sit fast enough (though I eventually started slipping onto my back a bit) to keep eye contact with him the whole time, for several complete 360 carves... I was shitting my pants, it was by far the coolest thing I've ever seen in a jump and definitely inspired me to keep freeflying no matter how hard it gets.